Secret Identity

A relaxed icebreaker no prep game for large groups


How To Play Secret Identity

Materials Needed

paper, sticky tape, pens

Have everyone secretly write down the name of a person on a small piece of paper or a "post-it" note. It has to be a person that everyone in the room would know about - a famous historical figure, an actor or sports celebrity, a politician, etc. Then have them tape the name on the back of the person on their left.

Everyone goes around and asks people yes or no questions about who is on their back. They can only ask each person one question. The person who can do it in the least number of questions wins.

NEW: This game concept is for sale as a board game called HedBanz. Check it out on Amazon.

Variants

Added by
Joel
on 8 July 2008


34 Comments

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I did this game at a Men's Church Retreat with about 80 people, but I turned it into a two-part game. The first part was to figure out who you were by asking Yes or No questions. But then I had divided all the names into about twenty groups of four (four presidents, baseball players, country music stars, actors, Smurfs, first ladies, etc.). After they figured out who they were, they moved to a second area of the gym floor and had to find the other three people in their group. Once they thought they had their group of four, they went to a gatekeeper. If they had a complete group, then they were safe. The last team to be safe was made to do something embarrassing (wear a tutu during a meal). Some of the names could have been in multiple groups (Princess Leia was in our Star Wars group, not our princesses group). So they might think they had a complete group, but in some cases they were wrong.

This turned out to be really fun, and took about 30 minutes.

Posted by Jason S 4 years ago

It seems fun we’ll just have to try it I am determined it will be fun

Posted by Munchkin 4 years ago

I didnt quite get it, so who guest the name, andhow they guest, and who know what's on the back of the person if they arent the one doing it?

Posted by R 5 years ago

It's great buddy!! Hahaha

Posted by Raynaldi 6 years ago

NICE ONE GAZZA. DAB. LOL. XD.

Posted by Robbie Young 7 years ago

I'm definitely using it for youth night..great way to get everyone involved thanks alot

Posted by Curt 7 years ago

I love the idea! I will suggest this to my youth group leader @ my church. Thanks!

Posted by Madison klino 9 years ago

I played this game with my youth group a month ago, but instead of having the students write down names of famous people, I wrote the names of Bible characters on name tags that we then stuck to the back of each student. Then they had to ask yes/no questions about the character to learn which Bible character they got.

Some who got particularly desperate took to asking the letters of the alphabet to find out which letter the name started with. I didn't limit them to a time or how many questions they could ask but let them keep asking until they figured out who their person was.

The game was a big success in getting people to mingle, helping them lose some of that excess energy in order to be able to listen to the lesson, and in challenging them to think about the Bible in advance of the lesson, which came next.

Posted by Vicki 10 years ago

they sell this games in stores now, its called headbands

Posted by YP 11 years ago

we also do this by sticking it to the person's forehead

Posted by megz 11 years ago

this is cool

Posted by 11 years ago

Very Very Nice...let the creativity flow

Posted by michael 11 years ago

i am going to do this tomorrow thanks for posting this i am sure this will be fun

Posted by Nelly 11 years ago

I liked this activity very much. Will try this with a 60-member group. Will post the feedback after i am done with it.

Rakesh
India

Posted by Rakesh 11 years ago

I used this game and the kids really enjoyed it.

We followed up with a meaningful discussion of whether being famous makes you a happier person. The kids agreed that there are a lot of unhappy famous people. We also saw that people who are famous for doing good works such as MLK and mother Theresa never really cared about being famous but became famous because they were passionate about caring for others. These were 7th and 8th graders, so I was impressed with the thoughtfulness.

Posted by Jay 11 years ago

What a game I love it.

Posted by 12 years ago

I work with large groups of kids and another way we have played this game with the younger kids since some of them struggle with reading is to print off pictures of characters (i.e. spongebob, superman, sandy etc.) and tape the pictures to their backs...they loved it! I agree with Kimberly, kids love the silliest things..they also love the messiest! We played a game called "cheese face" where everyone finds a partner (best to be played outside or over a tarp). You can either choose to have one partner receive a plate full of whip cream to the face or both...you then have either the other partner or have both partners take turns in throwing cheese puffs from a certain distance away from their partner and try to get it to stick to their partners face.. This can be really difficult to do but its fun and messy! We did end up giving them marshmallows to throw too since those were easier to stick to the other persons face. You can award 1 point for every marshmallow and 3 or 5 points for every cheese puff if you are looking to have a winner but this game is so fun that isn't even necessary!

Posted by Nicole 12 years ago

Fun Game!

Posted by Mr Wonderful. 12 years ago

Kimberly....are your suggestions on here as ice breakers? if not could u let me know where to find them!?

Posted by Isabel 12 years ago

I think any idea to bring fun to the youth is a great idea. If you all don't have anything nice to say about the things posted, maybe you should take your mouse, move it to the top right corner of the screen and X out of the window. Really sad when people can't help to improve in a decent manner. Oh and by the way I plan on using this idea with my Youth this Friday. Be blessed all who work with the Youth.

Posted by Sharnese 12 years ago

I'm a Youth leader, and the thing our youth love doing the most is doing silly, childish things. We do this, but write down lots of names beforehand and everybody gets one, such a great ice breaker! When we have kids mixed in it doesn't work because they cheat. We also love to play epic musical chairs, extreme hide and seek, and tip: with parental permission, most youth have always wanted to either be pied in the face with a cream pie, or be the one to slam it in someones face! Haha. Our favorite game other than sock wrestling!!

Posted by Kimberly 12 years ago

nice game

Posted by neeli 12 years ago

weeeeeeee this game is the best game ever weeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Yolanda Fat Pumperpickel 12 years ago

I love it..!!

Posted by NICHOLAS OTIENO 13 years ago

we played this years ago with a group of young professionals and everyone had a great time. i'm planning a camp in a few weeks for teens and this one is on my list.

Thanks!

Posted by yulee 13 years ago

Is this game too complicated for 10 and 11 year olds?

Posted by 13 years ago

GENIUS

Posted by Josh 13 years ago

I am a lance- corporal at a Boys Brigade and Girls Association and they loved this as did myself and my friends when we played it around a campfire and we are all late teens and early 20s it was a great success so thanks for the idea. xx

Posted by charlie 13 years ago

I think it's amazing, i just might use it tonight <3

Posted by Lauren 13 years ago

I love this game and its fun to play at baby showers!!!!!!!

Posted by Braysha 14 years ago

I have played this game when i was in middle school high school and in college and it never seemed too childish for me and the groups i was in.

Posted by Casey 14 years ago

I regularly play this game with my extended family and friends - from 20 year olds to 50 + . We love it. Ha ha!

Posted by Giles 15 years ago

My youth group did this before and we had a blast

Posted by Lela 15 years ago

I used this game for my youth group ages (13-19) and it worked great, they loved it. Thanks for the add shorty

Posted by Steven 15 years ago
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